Analysis

When it comes to improving the health and well-being of all people in Western North Carolina, expanding access to broadband is a necessary part of the work. Having reliable internet and the skills to use it are critical for every aspect of our lives—from accessing health care and landing a job to paying bills and learning new skills.

We’re less than eight months into the new administration, and considering that short amount of time, an unprecedented amount of deregulation has been coming out of the federal government related to broadband and telecommunications issues. Regulatory changes aren’t just coming from the Federal Communications Commission, but also from the White House, National Telecommunications and Information Administration, Congress, and other agencies like the Federal Trade Commission. Just a few of the deregulatory changes that have happened so far:

When we discussed project highs and lows with the program managers of the National Digital Navigator Corps cohort, they often mentioned their digital navigators as the best part of their programs and the times they transitioned to new digital navigators as the most challenging. These times of transition led to some great lessons learned about preparing for turnover in the digital navigator position, expanding and scaling work with additional digital navigators, and ensuring consistency across services provided by digital navigators with different levels of experience. 

More than 36 Broadband Equity, Access and Deployment (BEAD) Program draft final proposals have been released by states and territories. In these plans, each state is deciding how to connect its un- and underserved locations before submitting its final proposals to the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) for approval. Through these draft final proposals, we are seeing how states have adjusted their broadband deployment activities as a result of the BEAD Program restructuring and the Benefit of the Bargain application round.

There is an interesting docket at the Federal Communications Commission that is examining the ability of a city to sign an exclusive agreement with an internet service provider that keeps other new ISPs out of the market. The case involves Cottage Grove (MN), a suburb of St. Paul with a population of around 43,000. The City of Cottage Grove signed an agreement with Gateway Fiber to build fiber throughout the city.

Broadband Equity, Access and Deployment (BEAD) Program draft final proposals continue to pour in as each state prepares to submit its final plans to the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA). Each state is deciding how to connect its un- and underserved locations in what is called the Benefit of the Bargain application round. Today's edition of this series covers ten more states' draft final proposals.

AT&T announced at the end of 2024 that it plans to retire all copper networks by the end of 2029. The Federal Communications Commission noted in a recent filing that the use of traditional telephone service has decreased rapidly over time. The transition away from copper is going largely unnoticed in urban areas since customers typically have good alternatives to a landline.

Within a month after the Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment program was announced, there were a lot of predictions that the program was going to be a huge giveaway to the largest telephone and cable companies. There was some reason for that outlook, since there had been huge giveaways to large companies in the past, such as the $10 billion Connect America Fund Phase II fiasco. I felt optimistic from the beginning that BEAD would not all go to big companies due to the fact that BEAD was being driven by States, and not by federal grant programs.

Despite progress during the COVID-19 pandemic, access to technology is still out of reach for many individuals and families. The digital divide continues to affect communities nationwide, limiting access to opportunities in education, employment, healthcare, and everyday life. In 2020, when schools and workplaces shifted online, the urgent need for computers and affordable internet access became impossible to ignore.

Local governments have been installing flood sensors as a way to alert the public about high-water situations. There seems to be an increasing number of major flooding events, like Hurricane Helene and the Guadalupe River floods. But there are numerous smaller flooding events all of the time that result from heavy rains. In Appalachia, where I live, and in places like the Ozarks and the Rocky Mountains, floods can spring up quickly along roads after a rain event, often from upstream rain outside the flooded area.